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A systematic review and thematic synthesis were conducted on the motivations, purposes, and influence of pornography use among women who are in committed relationships. Pornography use was identified as having both positive and negative outcomes for women's sexual and relationship lives. Women watched pornography for diverse reasons: to feel sexually empowered, to enhance sexual arousal, and for masturbation purposes. Shared use of pornography with partners provided variety in sexual activities, could aid communication about sexual issues and helped improve intimacy. Pornography use can help some women feel sexually empowered, relaxed and better able to enjoy their sexual lives.

This study describes the identification of specific maxillofacial points triggering the swallowing reflex by finger pressure in a patient with severe amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This method has been named as the "Ishizaki Press Method." The first point was identified in a serendipitous encounter during training sessions to aid communication. This led to the search for such additional points, after obtaining informed consent from the patient and his relatives. Seven effective points were identified: the depressions in front of the left and right tragus (Ting gong points), bilateral points over the parotid and submandibular glands, and a point over the mentum in the midline of the face. The efficacy of these trigger points was noted to be ≥ 70%. The mean time taken for swallowing to occur in response to the stimulation at each of these points was less than 10 s, and the induction of a rapid swallowing reflex was recognized. Alternating left and right stimulations of the Ting gong points and the parotid points triggered the swallowing reflex significantly faster than unilateral stimulations alone. The Ishizaki Press Method may improve the management of dysphagia in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Purpose: Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) is increasingly used to guide cancer therapy. This study aimed to characterise oncologists’ experiences and needs when utilising genomic results. Materials and Methods: An electronic survey distributed nation-wide to practising medical oncologists in Australia explored oncologists’ experiences with consenting, interpreting and communicating CGP results to patients. Results: The survey was completed by 108 of 333 oncologists (32%) and most respondents (n = 97, 90%) had referred patients for CGP. Using a 100-point visual analogue scale score [VAS], where higher values indicate greater confidence, most oncologists were confident consenting patients for referral [median 75 (Interquartile range, IQR: 53–85), discussing CGP results (median VAS: 70, IQR: 51–80), but significantly less confident discussing secondary germline findings (median VAS: 56, IQR 30–70, p < 0.001). Confidence with pursuing therapies based on CGP results increased with clinical experience (mean VAS increases by 4.8 per 5 years of experience, p < 0.001). Most oncologists (N = 68, 63%) reported wanting assistance with interpretation of CGP and patient-centric resources to aid communication with patients. Conclusions: Oncologists are integrating genomics into clinical care, but only display moderate confidence in communication and changing management accordingly. The development of patient- and clinician- targeted resources may assist with routine utilisation of CGP results in cancer care.

Thoracolumbar spine fractures form a significant portion of any spine surgeon's practice. It is important to classify the injuries, which may vary from minor transverse process fractures to unstable fracture–dislocations in order to aid communication, plan management, anticipated outcome, and prognosis. It is imperative that such a classification must be simple, reliable, comprehensive, and reproducible as well as be validated by multiple observers. In spite of having several classification systems in practice, the ideal one remains elusive. This article reviews the history of classification, evolution of the classifications, the relative merits and demerits of each classification, and highlighting the lacunae which the subsequent line of thought intended to fill. Till date, the AOSpine thoracolumbar spine injury severity system is probably the most comprehensive and management-oriented classification after Magerl and Denis.

Purpose: The current classification of ocular trauma does not incorporate adnexal trauma, injuries that are attributable to a nonmechanical cause and destructive globe injuries. This study proposes a new classification system of ocular trauma which is broader-based to allow for the classification of a wider range of ocular injuries not covered by the current classification. Methods: A clinic-based cross-sectional study to validate the proposed classification. We analyzed 535 cases of ocular injury from January 1, 2012 to February 28, 2012 over a 4-year period in an eye hospital in central India using our proposed classification system and compared it with conventional classification. Results: The new classification system allowed for classification of all 535 cases of ocular injury. The conventional classification was only able to classify 364 of the 535 trauma cases. Injuries involving the adnexa, nonmechanical injuries and destructive globe injuries could not be classified by the conventional classification, thus missing about 33% of cases. Conclusions: Our classification system shows an improvement over existing ocular trauma classification as it allows for the classification of all type of ocular injuries and will allow for better and specific prognostication. This system has the potential to aid communication between physicians and result in better patient care. It can also provide a more authentic, wide spectrum of ocular injuries in correlation with etiology. By including adnexal injuries and nonmechanical injuries, we have been able to classify all 535 cases of trauma. Otherwise, about 30% of cases would have been excluded from the study.

Developing assistive, cost-effective, non-invasive technologies to aid communication of people with hearing impairments is of prime importance in our society, in order to widen accessibility and inclusiveness. For this purpose, we have developed an intelligent vision system embedded on a smartphone and deployed in the wild. In particular, it integrates both computer vision methods involving Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and machine learning techniques such as multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM) to detect and recognize British Visual Language (BSL) signs automatically. Our system was successfully tested on a real-world dataset containing 13,066 samples and shown an accuracy of over 99% with an average processing time of 170ms, thus appropriate for real-time visual signing.

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) between families and physicians may facilitate informed, timely decisions to proceed with biologic therapy in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Our team previously developed an SDM tool to aid communication between physicians and families when considering biologic therapy for children with IBD. Objective: We are conducting a prospective, pre-post pilot trial of a new SDM tool. The primary aim of the study is to assess feasibility of both the intervention and trial procedures for a future large-scale trial. Methods: We are enrolling physicians with experience prescribing biologic therapy in the past year and families of children with IBD. Families in the intervention arm receive a 3-step intervention including a letter sent before trial consent or clinic appointment, an in-clinic decision tool and a follow-up phone call. Our primary trial outcome is a measure of feasibility, with measures of clinical and decision outcomes secondary. We seek to enroll 27 families in each of 2 arms (usual-care and intervention) and plan data collection at the time of the initial visit or hospital stay, and at 1 week, 3 months, and 6 months after the initial visit. Conclusion: This study protocol is designed to demonstrate that integrating novel consent procedures, including timing and multiple versions of written consent, may increase trial feasibility while maintaining scientific rigor and full protection of study participants. Keywords: Pediatrics, Inflammatory bowel disease, Pilot trials, Consent

Western forces went into the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan unprepared for the linguistic and cultural challenges they brought. Only the recruitment of thousands of untrained local civilians to aid communication on the ground saved the day. Since conflict is a constant in human history, it is predictable that it will reoccur and strategic planning for similar interventions in the future must take place. Without offering solutions to the problem, this chapter provides a practitioner’s insight into the creation and development of interpreting and translation professions, their codes of ethics, and best practice. A study of these may help to determine whether and how they can instruct the development of similar guidelines and policy for the work and protection of civilian interpreters serving the military.

This work is supported by the Science of Sensor System Software programme grant, funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), EP/N007565/1. Sensor-driven systems provide data and information that facilitate real-time decision-making and autonomous actuation, as well as enable informed policy choices. However, can we be sure that these systems work as expected? Can we model them in a way that captures all the key issues? We define two concepts: frames of reference and frames of function that help us organise models of sensor-based systems and their purpose. Examples from a smart water distribution network illustrate how frames offer a lens through which to organise and balance multiple views of the system. Frames aid communication between modellers, analysts and stakeholders, and distinguish the purpose of each model, which contributes towards our trust that the system fulfils its purpose. Publisher PDF

WOMEN VISIBILITY AND PLAYFUL ACTS IS AN ANNUAL EVENT ORGANISED BY THE FEMINIST RESEARCH GROUP F=, FOCUSING ON PLAYFUL APPROACHES TO CREATIVE PRACTICES IN PUBLIC SPACES. PLAY IS USED AS A CORE STRATEGY TO INVITE THE PUBLIC/ PARTICIPANTS TO EXPRESS IDEAS, OPINIONS AND SELF AROUND THEMES CONNECTED TO FEMINISM USING INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY AS A PUBLIC PLATFORM FOR THESE EXPRESSIONS. IN CREATING SPACES OF NON-HIERARCHICAL ACTIVITY, PLAY, AS A METHOD OF ESTABLISHING TRUST, IS USED TO AID COMMUNICATION, TO MAKE NEW THINGS HAPPEN AND ENABLE TRANSFORMATION, EMPLOYING STRATEGIES OF HUMOUR AND THE SPECTACLE TO ENGAGE A DIVERSE, INTERGENERATIONAL AUDIENCE. IT IS PRIMARILY THROUGH PLAYFUL MEANS THAT WE EXTEND AN INVITATION TO TAKE PART. THIS PAPER VISUALLY DOCUMENTS WITH A TEXTUAL COMMENTARY THE PROCESS OF THE PROJECT AND THE WAYS WE USE PLAY TO EMPOWER, EDUCATE AND ACT IN PUBLIC SPACES.

Clear language should be used during emergency airway management to aid communication and understand the nature of the emergency. Unfortunately, during emergency airway management, there is no uniform language used for communication. Various difficult airway guidelines use different terminologies. Terminologies like “can't intubate, can't oxygenate” (CICO) and “can't intubate, can't ventilate” (CICV) have certain limitations. Though terminology like “Front of Neck Access” (FONA) is dominant in the literature,”emergency cricothyroidotomy” is used more often in clinical practice, suggesting a disconnect between the dominant terminology in the literature and in clinical practice. Terminology should not be used merely because it is catchy, simple and advocated by a few. It must accurately reflect the nature of the situation, convey a sense of urgency, and suggest an action sequence. An initiative to achieve consensus among existing terminologies is much needed. Leaders in the field should work towards refining airway terminology and replace poor phrases with ones that are more concise, precise and can be used universally in an airway emergency.

For patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), treatment guidelines recommend monitoring response to treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) by testing the BCR-ABL1 fusion gene transcript level using reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Despite recent efforts to standardise protocols for BCR-ABL1 testing, some variability remains among laboratories in the UK regarding the techniques used and the approach to reporting results. This increases the risk of misinterpretation of results by both clinicians and patients. An expert panel met to discuss current issues surrounding BCR-ABL1 testing in the UK and to develop guidance for laboratories, with emphasis on the optimal approach to reporting laboratory results. Topics included the minimum required information to include in the laboratory report, units of measurement, test sensitivity, and BCR-ABL1 transcript variants. To aid communication between laboratories and clinics, standard forms were generated that could be used by 1) clinics when submitting samples to laboratories, and 2) laboratories when reporting results to clinics. Standardising the way in which BCR-ABL1 test results are reported from laboratories to clinics should help to improve communication, interpretation of results, and patient care.

Interpreters, whether in person or via telephonic means, are used in healthcare settings to aid communication between clinicians and clients when the same language is not shared. Refugees seeking health and behavioural healthcare often have multiple needs and experiences of trauma that can complicate the provision of services. Little is known about the interpreters' experiences in providing in-person and telephonic interpreting for refugees. This qualitative study sought to understand the subjective experiences of interpreters in providing in-person and telephone interpretations to refugees in healthcare settings in the United States. Constant comparative analysis was used to analyse the transcribed, audio-taped individual, semi-structured interviews of 36 interpreters. These interviews were conducted between July 2013 and July 2014. Two themes were identified: (i) the importance for the interpreter to develop trust with the client; and (ii) working with refugees requires more attention from the interpreter. The interpreters of this study describe experiencing additional challenges in working with refugees versus other clients. Recommendations based on the findings are made.

Pair programming is a software development technique with many cited benefits in learning and teaching. However, it is reported that novice programmers find several barriers to pairing up, typically due to the added communication that is required of this approach. This paper will present a literature review discussing the issue of communication, and through a series of observations with industry-based pairs, will derive a set of guidelines which aim to help novice pairs experience better communication within their pairs. An evaluation of the guidelines with undergraduate students is then reported, showing that exposure to these guidelines improved the self-perceived communication experience of novice pairs.

A common complaint in children, abdominal pain can be clinically challenging for healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat. Accurate assessment and thorough investigations, combined with the measurement and monitoring of vital signs, are essential to eliminate any underlying conditions. Self-reporting tools can be used to aid communication with children, who may have difficulties articulating their thoughts and feelings. This article refers to a case study to discuss the care of children who present to emergency departments (EDs) with abdominal pain. It suggests that children's nursing students can be valuable assets in busy EDs because they have the knowledge and skills required to care for young people.

While there are common design decisions in existing games for teaching Computer Science (single player puzzle based games for the touchpad/keyboard and mouse), recent work has suggested that alternative approaches such as collaborative play and physically embodied designs may also provide important benefits to learners. In order to explore how making interactions with an educational programming game more physically embodied could impact collaborative play, we created an educational programming game called Bots & (Main)Frames. We then conducted a preliminary study to examine if the level designs achieved desired challenge and explore how two versions of the game with different forms of physical embodiment/input (e.g., mouse vs. tangible programming blocks) impacted player interactions underlying collaboration. We found that game levels seem to provide desired increasing challenge, and that players often used the mouse and tangible programming blocks to aid communication/collaboration in distinctly different ways.

Lord Laming's report into the death of Victoria Climbie highlights shortcomings in the safeguarding of children, in part due to poor record keeping and information sharing (House of Commons Health Committee 2003). This article presents findings from a survey of emergency department staff opinions about whether keeping records on children aged between birth and 16 years can safeguard them from harm. Staff members said that, while written records generally aid communication, the records they use did not focus satisfactorily on the children concerned and did not take into account some risks factors. The study led to a redesign of the record-keeping system.

This manuscript addresses the gap that exists between modern geoscience and geology, which is caused by the relative isolation in which mainstream geologists have operated and continue to operate. This gap is inevitable, but could be significantly reduced by adopting frontline developments in “Complex System Science” and its geoscience equivalent “Earth System Science”. To aid this process one proposes the use of “Geo-Logic” to express geologic problems explicitly and to impose scientific rigour. This paper is a statement of intent to direct geology into a theoretic direction and demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach with case studies where the theoretic approach was instrumental to the solution of a problem. The use of geo-logic would also serve as common language between geoscientists and aid communication between them.

This article seeks to explore the benefits of awareness of personality typing theory, as described by Jung and further by Briggs and Briggs Myers, in the context of communicating with patients in the setting of Specialist Palliative Care. In particular, dealing with the issue of spiritual injury/distress is considered. A brief summary of how the different dichotomies of Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for personality type can influence how a person interacts with their surrounding world is offered. Finally, there is an examination of how knowledge and understanding of this theory might aid communication.

Underground CO 2 storage facilities are designed to contain CO 2 permanently and the expected performance scenario is that no CO 2 leakage from the storage complex will occur. However, it is necessary to assess the possible environmental impacts of CO 2 leakage in the unlikely event that a storage system evolves differently from the design aim. The RISCS project is being undertaken under the European Union's 7th Framework Programme to research these potential impacts. To help focus RISCS research and aid communication of the results, a set of reference terrestrial and marine European receptor environments and associated impact scenario descriptions were defined systematically by evidence-based expert elicitation.

Excel files are widely understood in many departments within an organization so if you can create them easily this should aid communication and data quality. This paper will show how to use ODS tagsets.excelxp to create XML files that can be opened in Excel just like a normal spreadsheet. Case study data from the CDISC pilot study1 has been used to demonstrate the benefits and problems encountered. An XML file was created for each patient in the study with separate tabs per raw dataset and also a file of the whole database.

Engineering and architecture are close disciplines with much overlap. Co-operation between design team partners to combine their experience leads to successful building structures. The paper discusses the key issues in the design of shells, giving methods of categorisation to aid communication within the design team. There has been a recent move towards freeform shells and the paper shows the necessity of working these up from clear rational parameters rather than relying on a computer-generated image alone. It shows the key material parameters that need to be addressed in grid shell design and shows how results from model tests and smaller-scale precedents can inform choice of material and size of structural elements. A review of recent shell structures includes references to timber gridshells (Downland, Savill) comparing their form-finding, modelling and construction techniques with the Pods, Scunthorpe (construction start September 2009)

Children's centre staff will often work with children and families using a wide variety of languages other than English, which will require an equally broad range of strategies to aid communication.

Bhati CS, Wigmore SJ, Reddy S, Mayer DA, Buckels JAC, Derek M, Mirza DF. Web-based image transmission: a novel approach to aid communication in split liver transplantation. Clin Transplant 2010: 24: 98–103. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Abstract: Background: Split liver transplantation (SLT) is technically demanding and requires good communication between transplant centers. The recipient surgeon receiving a shipped split liver needs detailed information on allocation of inflow and outflow vessels. We describe the first use of an image transmission system to facilitate SLT. Methods: Twenty cadaver livers undergoing ex situ splitting were studied. Fifteen were shared between the geographically separate Birmingham adult and pediatric centers and five were shared with other UK centers. Results: A total of six to eight images of each split graft were taken with a camera at standardized settings using the National Organ Retrieval Imaging System (NORIS), showing details of appearance, size, and anatomy of allocated inflow and outflow vessels. These were uploaded using a personal digital assistant to a secure website (http://www.noris.org.uk). The remote recipient surgeon then viewed these images by logging onto the password-protected website. Minimum time interval between division of the hilar vessels and completion of the split procedure was two h, allowing remote surgeon to view their allocated “shipped” graft in advance of commencing surgery. Conclusion: This advanced yet simple image transmission system has the potential for routine application in transplant surgery, not only for splitting but also for reporting injuries and graft steatosis.

The search for biologic markers that can assess the natural history and perhaps predict the course of an individual’s disease – including response to treatments over time – has become an important focus of inflammatory bowel disease research. The knowledge of an individual’s prognosis can help physicians and patients make important management decisions and aid communication on risks and benefits of disease and treatment.

Al-Jawad and colleagues emphasise the primacy of the patient’s wishes in their Practice paper, which is timely and very important.1 Almost one in five older Irish people report having at least one …

Communication is essential to providing individuals with effective health care, but degenerative neurological conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or motor neurone disease (ALS/MND) impair patients' physical ability to communicate to get their needs met. New technologies are giving people with motor disabilities alternative means of communicating with caregivers and health professionals. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine whether ERICA, a hands-free, eye-tracking communication device, is practical for use by people with ALS/MND. The ERICA eye gaze system was compared with a manual letter board and evaluated for speed and ease of use. Method: Six patients were asked to spell out a simple sentence with the assistance of a caregiver, first using a manual letter board, then using the ERICA eye gaze system. Results: Four out of the six patients communicated more quickly using the manual letter board but four out of the six patients rated the ERICA eye gaze system as less difficult to use. Conclusions: It is recommended that health professionals use both low-tech and high-tech solutions to address the loss of speech experienced by people with ALS/MND during disease progression.

The Dryad repository is for data supporting published research in the field of evolutionary biology and related disciplines. Dryad development team members seek a theoretical framework to aid communication about metadata issues and plans. This article explores lifecycle modeling as a theoretical framework for understanding metadata in the repository environment. A background discussion reviews the importance of theory, the status of a metadata theory, and lifecycle concepts. An analysis draws examples from the Dryad repository demonstrating automatic propagation, metadata inheritance, and value system adoption, and reports results from a faceted term mapping experiment that included 12 vocabularies and approximately 600 terms. The article also reports selected key findings from a recent survey on the data-sharing attitudes and behaviors of nearly 400 evolutionary biologists. The results confirm the applicability of lifecycle modeling to Dryad's metadata infrastructure. The article concludes that lifecycle...

The communication between distinct social worlds or forms of life is a central topic in the sociology of knowledge. How do different communities interact with each other? Based on a sociological analysis of the work of Japanese—Portuguese interpreters in the Brazilian steel industry, I argue that the `language barrier', which is normally thought as a problem, can aid communication by preventing people who hold potentially clashing concepts, beliefs and customs from directly confronting each other. The importance for such people of not understanding each other is revealed in the work of interpreters, who facilitate the interaction between representatives of different steel companies and support the transfer of technology from Japan to Brazil. They maintain cordial relationships by acting as `buffers' between the Japanese and Brazilian forms of life. Three `models of mediation' are discussed in a comparison of the Japanese—Portuguese interpreters with other cases of interaction.

With research in Arabic Sign Language Recognition (ArSLR) still in its infancy, we present a method for recognition of Arabic Sign Language (ArSL) using Microsoft Kinect. A new dataset for ArSL words was collected using Kinect due to the lack of existence of one. With the intention of use in medical hospitals to aid communication between a deaf or hard-of-hearing patient with the doctor, the foremost goal was presenting a robust system, which does not impose any constraints on either the signer or the background. The proposed system combines skeletal data and depth information for hand tracking and segmentation, without relying on any color markers, or skin color detection algorithms. The extracted features describe the four elements of the hand that are used to describe the phonological structure of ArSL: articulation point, hand orientation, hand shape, and hand movement. Hidden Markov Model (HMM) was used for classification using ten-fold cross-validation, achieving an accuracy of 80.47%. Singer-independent experiments resulted in an average recognition accuracy of 64.61%.

The importance of investing in ICT cannot be over emphasised.1 ICT consists of all technical means to handle information and aid communication, including computer and network hardware and software.2 Recent research emphasises the strategic importance of new technology or infrastructure, for example computer systems projects, with 70% of survey respondents having experience of the appraisal of such projects.3 Now, more than ever, effective business strategy centres on aggressive, efficient use of information technology.4 Expenditure on ICT projects has been growing at a rapid pace over the past two decades, while investment in non-ICT projects (other than commercial real estate) has, in comparison, been in decline. Despite the global downturn, ICT is the world’s fastest-growing international industry.5 The appraisal of ICT projects, however, continues to present a problem. ICT projects are multidimensional constructs requiring a multidimensional approach to their appraisal.6

Mark, trace and structure have been in consistently used in ichnology for many years; we wish to clarify the origins and to prescribe correct usage of these terms. The origins of the words are ancient and complex; in the twentieth century they were given clear definitions as ichnologic terms. Seilacher (1953) de fined a mark (German Marke ) as a physical (abiogenic) sedimentary structure, as in the common terms sole mark, flute mark, but not bite mark or scratch mark . Trace has been defined many times; we recommend the consensus definition of Bertling et al. (2006) as “a morphologically recurrent structure resulting from the life activity of an individual organism (or homotypic or ganisms) modifying the substrate”; this in cludes dwelling trace, feeding trace, bite trace . Structure , as implied in another consensus paper (Frey, 1973), is a neutral term for geologic patterns resulting from either biogenic or abiogenic processes. Use of the three terms in a clear consistent manner will aid communication both among ichnologists and between ichnologists and their colleagues in other fields.

Joanne Martin’s scholarship has significantly influenced the study of organizational culture by communication scholars. Martin’s recent metatheory seeks to ‘‘map’’ the ‘‘terrain’’ of perspectives commonly used to study organizational culture and argues for the use of multiple perspectives to produce more fruitful research. While acknowledging the benefits of this metatheory, we critique 2 of its problematic elements. Both arise from Martin’s claims about the phenomena of organizational culture and the various perspectives through which they might be known. The first problem involves Martin’s decoupling of ontology and epistemology, as well as her subsequent oscillation between 2 conflicting clusters of ‘‘onto-epistemological’’ claims. Partly as a result, Martin also overemphasizes the ideational dimensions of organizational culture, thereby inhibiting analysis of its production in and through communication. These problems may negatively affect how communication scholars conceptualize organizational cultural phenomena and analyze data. To mitigate these problems, we offer 2 readings derived from social constructionism, poststructuralism, and critical realism. These readings aid communication scholars in successfully using Martin’s metatheory. We conclude by considering the implications of this critique for the development of metatheory in communication.

We explored whether transferring signals between two hearing aids could improve speech intelligibility in noise. This was evaluated using a simulated conversation in a car; speech was presented to the right ear and car noise was presented either to the right or both ears. In three cross-aid communication conditions, the noise in the right ear was scaled and subtracted from the noise in the left ear. Speech intelligibility was determined for a group of normally hearing listeners and a group with bilateral hearing loss. The hearing-impaired group had relatively higher intelligibility scores when the car noise was diotic, whereas the normal-hearing group had relatively higher intelligibility scores in the binaural (dichotic) conditions. The cross-aid conditions led to improved intelligibility compared to the reference conditions. The results indicate that the transfer of signals between hearing aids may be of benefit when listening to speech in a car.SumarioExploramos si la transferencia de senales entre dos...

Many systems to aid communication have been developed for seriously physically handicapped people, such as ALS patients. An eye-gaze input system is currently being evaluated as a new interface. This system can be used to operate a computer with eye movement only. Most conventional eye-gaze input systems use infrared rays on eyes to detect eye-movement. However, prolonged irradiation could damage eyes. We developed a new eye-gaze input system with multi-indicators using a personal computer and a home video camera to detect eye-gaze under natural light. This system does not require special devices for detecting eye-movement. The results of our system analisys show the limit of the vertical resolution is between 5 and 7 indicators.

This paper discusses an investigation carried out on choosing the appropriate brain-body interface for a group of non-verbal severely brain injured participants to aid communication and recreation. Although extensive research has been carried out in the last few years with invasive and non-invasive brain-body interfaces for the traumatic brain injured community, not enough has filtered through to be used as an everyday tool for communications.

Small-scale farm forestry has the potential to offer many benefits both to landholders and the wider community. As with all changes in land-use practices, there are associated benefits and costs and these are not uniformly distributed. They have varying impacts on the different values, aspirations, goals and objectives that exist within the community. Furthermore, the community does not consider these values, aspirations, goals and objectives of equal importance. The degree of concern can vary from minor to high and overriding all other considerations. When evaluating farm forestry options it is necessary to address all of these concerns. This paper examines the combined use compensatory and non-compensatory multi-criteria analyses to evaluate forestry options, in a case study for the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. These aggregation techniques are found to be highly complementary and together provide a comprehensive analysis. The compensatory technique provides a sound measure of overall performance of a forestry system, whereas the non-compensatory technique alerts decision-makers to presence of particularly poor performance with respect to individual criteria. The compensatory technique used is simple and understandable even for those with non-mathematical backgrounds. This analysis can identify and aid communication of the relative benefits and costs, and trade-offs, between economic, environmental and social considerations.

Perspective displays are a form of information display which capture many of the geometric features of a real environment. How their representational and analytic functions may be balanced is illustrated in terms of informative geometric distortions that may be introduced to aid communication of specific spatial messages.

Several systems are extensively used to rate maize (Zea mays L.) maturity in North America, including growing degree days, crop heat units, and Minnesota relative maturity rating days. Correspondence between the different systems varies with the temperature range of the environment, because of different bases of calculation and unit size. However, general guidelines for conversion from one system to another would aid communication among researchers, producers, distributors, and extension personnel, particularly where regional preference for one system exists, but information developed in another region is shared. Simple regression equations were developed from a data set with 4 years, 28 hybrids, and 19 locations (between 39° and 48° N lat). Coefficients of determination were ≥0.91, indicating that these equations could be used as a general guideline to compare maturity ratings developed using the different systems.

The main themes in this article are the practice of asking questions during fieldwork and the confrontation with the "unspeakable" around the subject of pregnancy and birth while doing fieldwork. As 1 entered the field, a Diola village in the rural Casamance region of Senegal, I was aware of the existence of silence and secrecy on these topics. Pregnant myself, I assumed that my pregnancy would aid communication and rapport. This was not so. As my pregnancy advanced, the flow of information became increasingly restricted and secret. Only reflexively was I able to recognize the ethnocentric assumptions with which I had entered the field and to recognize the complex dimensions of the silence and secrecy that had surrounded me.

Categorization refers to the ability to reduce the potentially unlimited number of objects an animal might encounter to a smaller number of discrete groups, or categories. Animals adaptively form categories to exploit similarities and differences between objects that aid communication, prediction

The potential of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for deaf and hard-of-hearing people has been recognized. This paper reviews the use environment for the deaf and hard-of-hearing person and an ASR device, using ergonomic analysis techniques. Within the deaf and hard-of-hearing population, there are many interpersonal differences, stemming from audiological and rehabilitation characteristics and social and occupational settings. Some members of the population may find ASR devices inadequate or prefer other communication aids. Environmental characteristics, particularly noise and light, affect ASR device use. The technology of automatic speech recognition itself introduces device limitations and challenges. In ergonomic analysis, these three aspects - user, environment and device - are connected by the task, in this case the communication task. Deaf and hard-of-hearing users need to communicate with many different people, ranging from intimate associates to perfect strangers and disembodied voices. They need to communicate in one-to-one situations and in groups both small and large. In many of these communication settings, relationships are more important than information and use of ASR would interfere with valuable eye contact as much as aid communication. Imposing order on many communication settings is problematic, but multiple conversations and interruptions create interference with selecting the correct signal to transcribe. © 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.

This paper introduces CodEc, an Internet repository for computer programs written by, and for, economists and econometricians. CodEc provides a means to aid communication among researchers by using the Internet to share implementations of algorithms. After a description of the current content of CodEc, we discuss the use of CodEc to store and retrieve code from published articles.

Following proposals in 1987 and 1988, several medical journals have provided more informative abstracts (“structured abstracts”) for articles of clinical interest. Structured abstracts for original studies require authors to systematically disclose the objective, basic research design, clinical setting, participants, interventions (if any), main outcome measurements, results, and conclusions; and for literature reviews the objective, data sources, methods of study selection, data extraction and synthesis, and conclusions. More informative abstracts of this kind can facilitate peer review before publication, assist clinical readers to find articles that are both scientifically sound and applicable to their practices, and allow more precise computerized literature searches. We review the feasibility, acceptability, and dissemination of structured abstracts, reassess the underlying strategy, and describe modifications of the approach. This innovation can aid communication from scientists to clinicians, and other clinical journals are invited to join this effort.

Holistic integration of faces has been widely studied. More recently, investigations have explored whether similar processing is used for human bodies. Here we show that holistic processing, as measured by the composite task, does occur for bodies but is stronger for left and right halves than for top and bottom halves. We also found composite effects for left–right halves of inverted bodies. Standard composite effects were found for top halves of faces, tested as a control. We argue that our results suggest that holistic processing of faces and bodies might not exclusively occur for identification, but instead may also have evolved to aid communication and/or decisions about mate choice (through judging symmetry).

Continuing this series on apps to assist with different areas of learning, Anthony David assesses options to aid communication, which can make a big difference to SEN pupils.

Often in textbooks, complex methods such as fluorescence anisotropy and polarization are described using mathematical formulae. Although a formula can be a precise and concise means of conveying complex ideas between experts well trained in mathematics, the use of formulae can actually impede comprehension for a lay audience. Similarly, the use of technical jargon can aid communication between experts with a common appreciation of underlying concepts, but its use can hinder communication with the uninitiated. Alternatively, attempts to present complex methods in an intuitive fashion often require making simplifying assumptions, which can lead to confusion. Here, we attempt to avoidthese communication pitfalls by first presenting the fundamental photophysical concepts underlying fluorescence polarization and anisotropy. This we hope will provide some foundation for the more detailed explanations, occasionally using formulae, found in subsequent sections and serve as a starting point from which a thorough understanding of the theoretical principles governing the technique can be attained.

Children with cerebral palsy are often prescribed adaptive seating systems for use in their wheelchairs for the purposes of improving posture and to help prevent the development of long-term deformity. However, clinical experience indicates that parents and the therapists who advocate the use of these systems do not always agree about the wheelchairs. This study discusses the development of questionnaires for both parents and therapists to measure differences in their opinions about the wheelchairs. The questions were developed through clinical experience, validation was through interviews to discuss topics important to the participants, and repeated application of the questionnaire ensured consistency. The reliability of the questions appears satisfactory and the interview responses demonstrate that the questions selected are important to both groups of stakeholders. However, it was found that parental concerns over their children's seating systems concentrated on functional and day-to-day management issues, whereas therapist concerns focused on technical issues and postural management. Both groups of stakeholders agreed that the questionnaires would be a useful precursor to attending a seating clinic appointment, as it could aid communication between the parent and provider and improve the efficiency and satisfaction of such an appointment. It appears the questionnaire has potential as an outcome measurement tool.

TESSA is an experimental system that aims to aid transactions between a deaf person and a clerk in a Post Office by translating the clerk's speech to sign language. A speech recogniser recognises speech from the clerk and the system then synthesizes the appropriate sequence of signs in British Sign language (BSL) using a specially-developed avatar. By using a phrase lookup approach to language translation, which is appropriate for the highly constrained discourse in a Post Office, we were able to build a working system that we could evaluate. We summarise the results of this evaluation (undertaken by deaf users and Post office clerks), and discuss how the findings from the evaluation are being used in the development of an improved system.